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[Mephansteras]

That language stuff is both nifty and impressive!

[Man of Paper]

Some of the central thematic elements of the game (which as I say are only now starting to emerge) are about how we understand truth, and the ways in which different civilizations perceive reality according to different metrics (science, myth, etc).

I approve of this.

[dennislp3]

I have been watching this for ages but I don't think I have yet to post here to watch it! Silly me...done!

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

That language stuff is both nifty and impressive!

Thanks! I've got a couple of others in the works, but as the language aspect in general isn't really a big factor yet, it's not a priority at the moment.

Some of the central thematic elements of the game (which as I say are only now starting to emerge) are about how we understand truth, and the ways in which different civilizations perceive reality according to different metrics (science, myth, etc).

I approve of this.

Excellent . As I say, in a version or two these will slowly start to become visible in the game...

I have been watching this for ages but I don't think I have yet to post here to watch it! Silly me...done!

Wise move sir! I'll be continuing to cross-post things from the blog over here, as I know there's a lot of Bay12 folk interested in the game.

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

And, speak of the devil, here's a cross-post:

This fortnight’s update is a relatively short one, though a lot of work has been done. I’ve now enabled the ability to export the map grid you’re currently on into a .png file (much like you can currently export the various world map overlays by pressing ‘X’). More importantly, I’ve been redoing all the terrain generation, and have reduced the loading and saving times on all map grids by between 50% and 90%, depending on what’s on the map grid. Grids with buildings and interiors naturally take slightly longer to generate than other areas, but the reduction is very significant. All of those who say the game takes too long to load some segments (you are undoubtedly correct) can hopefully, now, rest easy that they won’t be waiting through the same kinds of load times. I’m also changing how the game stores data so that the save files will be less colossal; this is an ongoing process, but the save files for 0.4 will certainly be smaller than their titanic 0.3 brethren. The remaking of the terrain generation algorithm is perhaps 90% completed now, and one thing I’ve been doing is also adding more detail to the ziggurat regions. I felt they were looking a little sparse, so it seemed appropriate to do something to improve them a tad:



And a gif of these structures at dawn, day, dusk and night (note also the changing shading on the trees):



For the time being these extra structures are just decoration, but in the future they too will be fully explorable, and each ziggurat region on the world map will have a lot more content in it than it currently does. In line with some feedback I’ve got, I’ve decided that there are only going to be three ziggurat locations on the map – each one will contain a single large ziggurat that will contain a key fragment, and the other ziggurats will contain a number of other things in them. I’d like each map grid you end up exploring to be a significant thing, so each grid area (like the one above) is going to contain a far larger amount of content. I’m now switching back to finishing off throwing and projectiles once and for all – perhaps only a day’s work remains there – then I’ll be moving onto handling the health system. Next week we’ll have a summary of all the other developments over the last month and then follow that up with the start of health and injuries.

[Mephansteras]

Impressive looking, as always!

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

Impressive looking, as always!

Thanks . Probably going to get out a nice and detailed trap screenshot next week...

[Silleh Boy]

Personally, I've found this game to be of more interest since the change of focus.

While the open world that you initially had planned was interesting, something about the change of focus to dungeon crawling, dealing with deadly traps and deciphering puzzles in ancient languages reminds me of how much I wished that the ziggurat in Gearhead had a little more to it - I remember many playthroughs I'd up my toughness, resiliance to status effects, get medication to deal with anything that got through and then head out to this one specific hostile location to crawl through it for its treasures.

This seems to capture the same promise of exploration, using your wits and tools to overcome the challenges before you, of coming out atop it all with your reward - or dying a horrible death because you underestimated the challenges before you and for that, it has not just rekindled, but sparked a new interest in me.

The artwork that you've done using the medium you have, along with the effects you've applied to it add a great deal of appeal to the game too as while there's a lot that a player's required to imagine with games of these styles and this acts as a potent catalyst.

With the sun setting you're dappled with the last dying rays of golden-red light filtering through the canopy above, facing a forboding structure made of stepped and weathered sandstone forgotten for countless ages in the untamed forest.
Do you dare enter before morning returns with the warm glow of the sun to give you false courage before you march into the darkness?

I'll be looking forward to seeing this when there's more substance, so the cries of joy along with the screams of horror of my foolhardy adventurers will mark their many successes and failures.
Best of luck!

[Dutchling]

I somewhat agree. While I was at first disappointed with the change of focus (other than the removal of most fantasy elements, I liked that change) I think I'm starting to like what you are making more and more .

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

Personally, I've found this game to be of more interest since the change of focus.

While the open world that you initially had planned was interesting, something about the change of focus to dungeon crawling, dealing with deadly traps and deciphering puzzles in ancient languages reminds me of how much I wished that the ziggurat in Gearhead had a little more to it - I remember many playthroughs I'd up my toughness, resiliance to status effects, get medication to deal with anything that got through and then head out to this one specific hostile location to crawl through it for its treasures.

This seems to capture the same promise of exploration, using your wits and tools to overcome the challenges before you, of coming out atop it all with your reward - or dying a horrible death because you underestimated the challenges before you and for that, it has not just rekindled, but sparked a new interest in me.

The artwork that you've done using the medium you have, along with the effects you've applied to it add a great deal of appeal to the game too as while there's a lot that a player's required to imagine with games of these styles and this acts as a potent catalyst.

With the sun setting you're dappled with the last dying rays of golden-red light filtering through the canopy above, facing a forboding structure made of stepped and weathered sandstone forgotten for countless ages in the untamed forest.
Do you dare enter before morning returns with the warm glow of the sun to give you false courage before you march into the darkness?

I'll be looking forward to seeing this when there's more substance, so the cries of joy along with the screams of horror of my foolhardy adventurers will mark their many successes and failures.
Best of luck!

Thanks for the very kind words . I'm glad you like the new focus - you've described very well the kind of thing I'm trying to pursue. The feeling of exploration - and, ultimately, having enough content, including enough optional content, that one should hopefully always encounter something quite new and interesting - is a high goal, but one I'd definitely like to work on. Don't get me wrong, I love the challenge of roguelikes, but I really want to instill those feelings of both fear and excitement when you reach a brand new area in a permadeath game that you've never been in before. And thanks re: the artwork - as I've mentioned once or twice before in this thread, it was never an initial goal, but now I've seen what can be done within the limitations, it has become a key aspect of the game. Fantastic italicized description, btw!

I somewhat agree. While I was at first disappointed with the change of focus (other than the removal of most fantasy elements, I liked that change) I think I'm starting to like what you are making more and more .

Glad to hear it sir . Development has slowed a little now as I have a ridiculous amount of academic work that demands my time, but 0.4 is still well on-track for release by the end of the year...

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

Finally a (brief, I confess) update! The past two weeks have been very academia-heavy, and I haven’t been able to produce as much work on URR as I’d like. We’re still on for the end of the year for version 0.4, but this is going to be a short update on a few small aspects developed in the last fortnight. I’m currently working on finishing off my list of small fixes, bugs and improvements, and I aim to finish that off by the end of the week. There were around fifty things on the list, which is now down to about thirty, and constantly dropping. Some highlights of the past week:

- I’ve improved the way saving is handled, reducing the length of time it takes by around 40%, and I am confident I can take off at least another 10%, and possibly even enable multithreading so that saving (though not loading) can actually take place in the background.

- Fixed a large number of issues around throwing items indoors/outdoors, how they are rendered, and the messages they display upon impact, which can be dependent on whether you see the thing they hit, and/or the thing they land on. I believe every variation is now catered for, but this requires a little more testing.

- Having finished off all the procedural graphics that appear when you look at terrain, I’ve worked on the ones for trees. Each species of tree has a distinct colour for its bark and its leaves – in general these are true to life, though a few trees are slightly stylized in their choices of colours purely to aid in distinguishing them, rather than submit to absolute realism. The branches display at different angles based on what part of the tree you ‘l’ook at, and the leaves and branches are naturally procedurally placed, so here are some examples:



I’m pretty happy with them. Anyway – I’m tentatively going to estimate that 0.4 will be released either around the 20th, or if it takes a little longer, around the 29th/30th of December (or possibly even on New Year’s Day). I have a hefty amount of academic work that needs to be done, so it’ll all depend on how the two both play out. Either way, within two months, the next version will be out, and you’ll be able to set yourselves on fire and throw torches down darkened corridors to your heart’s content. Once we get closer to release blog updates will return to weekly, not fortnightly (as they always do), but I suspect we’ll only have one more update in November.

[Mephansteras]

Amazing the things you force ascii to do...

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

Amazing the things you force ascii to do...

Thanks . Now just to finish off the small bugs/improvements list by the end of the week...

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

The "Traps" entry in the guidebook - not 100% finished, but has everything relevant to the next release:

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

The final few trap graphics are done. The mines 'splode good, too.